Vegan Mini Polenta Pizzas, Udon, And Fresh Fig Bars

I was planning on blogging about all of this last night after I put my little man to bed, but it’s all a blur. I definitely don’t remember falling asleep, but next thing I knew I was waking up, grabbing for a clock. Eleven o’clock?! Dang it! It was too late to gather enough brain cells to blog. I hate that feeling of lost time. Don’t get me wrong, I can nap with the best of them, but when it’s unexpected it just feels so shocking. Do you know what I mean?

Accidental naps aside, for lunch yesterday I made mini polenta pizzas with marinara, orange and yellow cherry tomatoes, kale, and a sprinkling of Follow Your Heart Mozzarella. They were so cute and very tasty, making them perfect little hor’deurves. Plus, they’re so quick and easy to make. I just sliced a roll of polenta I found in my pantry, topped with sauce, veggies, and vegan cheese, and baked at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Dinner was also quick and simple. It’s not that I don’t want to whip up something magical, we’re just nearing the end of our grocery week and I’m running low on produce. I made an udon stir-fry with snap peas, carrots, daikon, broccoli, garlic, toasted sesame oil, Bragg’s, and sesame seeds.

Do you ever find something you purchased and completely forgot about hanging out in your fridge? Figs! I picked up figs and put them in a place I never put fruit, so they had been sitting there lonely and unused for almost a week. I decided to make fig bars with them, using this recipe as a guide. Of course, I used amber agave rather than honey and Spectrum’s non-hydrogenated shortening. I also left out the walnuts and used whole wheat pastry flour. The bars turned out very tasty, but delicate, and I don’t think I’d use that recipe again. We walked around all evening saying, “It’s not a cookie! It’s fruit and cake!” Old Fig Newton commercials anyone? No? No, Fig Newtons aren’t vegan if you’re wondering now.

Happy Friday! Feel free to show me some Friday love by liking the ol’ Facebook page, following the ol’ Twitter, or signing up for the ol’ newsletter. Yeah, everything is ol’ today. And thank you so much to those of you who left your wisdom for new or soon-to-be vegans on yesterday’s Your Thoughts Thursday. If you didn’t get a chance you can still go back and comment. I get a lot of questions from people who want to go vegan but aren’t sure where to start, and it would be so awesome to be able to refer them to your thoughts and suggestions, as well as my own.

I’ll leave you with some fun photos of me from this week, since I rarely post pictures of myself. I’m usually the one behind the camera!

Hehe, thank you! And you better get on that polenta train. It’s kind of fun- just a cornmeal-based grainy alternative to pastas or rice. It’s easy to make, but in the tube it’s super-firm so it worked well for these pizzamajigs.